Method and system for facilitating service transactions

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method and system for facilitating service transactions, both on-line and off-line, for transacting services driven by purchasers or by service providers. In particular, the invention makes services freely tradable as goods via standardizing material terms describing such service transactions. The method includes steps defining a set of service classification and material terms, registering a plurality of participants of the service marketplace, searching and compiling at least one offer and one request for offers provided by the participants for selling or buying services while the offer and the request for offer is described in the set of service classification and material terms, evaluating and matching the offer and the request for offer based upon the degree of identicalness of the set of service classification and material terms recited in the offer and the request for offer, and communicating to matched participants of the result generated by the evaluating and matching step.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation application Ser. No. 09/903,985 filedJul. 13, 2001, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to a method and system for facilitatingservice transactions between service providers and purchasers forservices, and more particularly to a computer-implemented method/systemthat provides a service marketplace, both on-line and off-line, fortransacting services driven by purchasers or by the service providers.In particular, the invention makes services freely tradable as goods viaa set of standardizing material terms describing such servicetransactions.

2. Description of Related Arts

A variety of service transaction promoting systems have been developedfor promoting the transactions of services either on-line or off-line.The following sites are examples of attempts to transact serviceson-line known at the time of filing the application. Applicant is notaware of when such systems may have become known to the public relativeto the time of conception and/or reduction to practice of the invention.While many companies have attempted to transact services on theInternet, none of them provides a solution to freely trade services asgoods, stocks or commodities. For example, ServiceMagic.com assists apurchaser to search via a list of pre-screened home maintenance serviceprofessionals selected by an interested purchaser. It is limited to homemaintenance services, and its pre-screening procedure only ensures theproviders are licensed by the state, have not filed bankruptcy withinthe past seven years, and have no liens or judgments against them withinthe past three years. The site rather passively provides the informationwithout going forward to compare or match any transaction. None of thesesearches results in any forms of binding transactions of services. Inother words, ServiceMagic.com is merely a volume of on-line maintenanceservice yellow pages.

Elance.com intends to connect buyers with freelancers or independentcontractors electronically but having a few shortcomings. Firstly, thee-lanced services are limited to the traditional freelancing services,such as writing, designing and translation, and conventionalprofessional services, such as legal and accounting services. Secondly,the buyers have to browse respective profiles of each service providerso as to invite them to bid. Alternatively, the buyers wait for serviceproviders to submit proposals including estimate and explanationsresponsive to the buyers' projects. Then the buyers “handpick” abid-winner. Although Elance.com is implemented on-line, its automationis limited to recording and posting offers. As such, the number andlength of the proposals is significantly limited by the capability ofthe human brain for processing multiple variables of multiple proposals.Thirdly, Elance.com does not provide actual bidding or auctions sincewhatever being proposed is not final and binding on the buyers. Rather,the buyers are free to disregard all the proposals or arbitrarily decidea winner after a posting section is closed. The alleged bidding processis not an actual bid but rather a one-sided (pro-buyer) transactionalforum.

Fourthly, in its default procedure, Elance.com certifies the buyers'ability to pay via credit cards or debit cards but does not certify anyservice providers' credentials or ability to carry out the services.Fifthly, Elance.com collects the feedback from participants to establishcumulative ratings of other chosen participants, but it does not verifythe comments. Just like any classified advertisements in newspapers, theservice providers may post whatever they would like on Elance.com, andElance.com is not responsible for the contents other than the creditcard information.

According to CNET News, a handful of software companies are seeking toautomate management of legal contracts and agreements for trackingcontract terms and conditions, which is still an abstract idea, and theidea is limited to internal contract management.

Currently, there is no neutral platform facilitating servicetransactions between purchasers and service providers via automaticallyand simultaneously comparing multiple service proposals with multiplevariables.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a purpose of this invention to foster global service transactionsby automatically collecting and compiling viable offers for a purchaserregardless of geographical location so buyers can thereby comparecompeting offers on-line in real time based upon a set of materialterms.

It is a purpose of this invention to allow a participant of the servicemarketplace to leverage the market forces of supply and demand and todynamically reduce costs of operation

It is a purpose of this invention to provide “total cost functionality”which enables a participant to make business decisions based not only onprice, but also on multiple criteria such as quality, delivery time andreferral based.

It is a purpose of this invention to provide an integrated managementtool to shorten transaction and fulfillment cycles, reduce inventory andadministrative costs, and reliably fulfill service contracts.

It is a purpose of this invention to provide a method for marketing totargeted customers with focused content so as to create sales.

It is another purpose of this invention to provide a complete andsophisticated prediction, simulation and optimization decision-makingplatform for participants of the service marketplace.

It is another purpose of this invention to mine customer data notpreviously available.

It is another purpose of this invention to certify credits andcredentials of any participants of the service marketplace.

It is another purpose of this invention to collect feedback about thequality and value of services based on price and buyers' evaluations.

It is another purpose of this invention to reduce manual analysis anddata consolidation.

It is another purpose of this invention to improve decision-makingassistance for business strategic planning.

It is another purpose of this invention to improve inventory anddistribution channel management.

It is another purpose of this invention to improve monitoring ofbusiness initiatives.

It is another purpose of this invention to identify and recapture lostrevenue.

It is another purpose of this invention to offer strategicdecision-making solutions that will help a participant of the servicemarketplace to coordinate services and make the optimal decision at eachcritical decision point.

It is another purpose of this invention to enable managers withdifferent functional responsibility to make decisions consistent withoverall long-term company success by utilizing a lifetime consumptionvalue of services (LCVS).

It is still another purpose of this invention to recognize the speech,language, emotion, social intelligence, character and characteristics ofa participant so as to improve the communication and interaction in theservice marketplace.

It is still another purpose of this invention to providethree-dimensional or holographic videoconferencing to provide a realsense of live participation and the opportunity of observing thecounterpart's facial expression and body language as if talkingface-to-face.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and additional features and characteristics of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription considered with reference to the accompanying drawings inwhich like reference numerals designate like elements and wherein:

FIG. 1 is diagram illustrating the technical functions of the RetainingEngine and the Automated Retaining Management Systems according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 a schematic view of the interactions among the buyers, theservice providers, and the Retaining Engine in the service marketplaceaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating one embodiment of the operation ofthe Retaining Engine of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is diagram contrasting the Lifetime Consumption Value forServices of the present invention with the traditional metrology ofdecision-making which focuses on one specific time point. * The featuresare the features of MicroStrategy Web™ available athttp://www.microstrategy.com/oldstore/software/web/toc.asp.

FIG. 5 shows the layers of data mined by the Retaining Engine compiledfrom speech recognition to language recognition and other layerssubsequently according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is diagram contrasting the data sources for data mining of thepresent invention with prior art. In particular, one embodiment of thepresent invention further includes the data of the social intelligence,character and characteristics as well as the service transaction recordsin material terms.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In order to more clearly and concisely describe the subject matter ofthe claims, the following definitions are intended to provide guidanceas to the meanings of specific terms used in the following writtendescription. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology orterminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not oflimitation. As used herein:

“Services” include any act of assistance or benefit to other(s), such asthe services classified according to the Universal Standard Products andServices Classification (UNSPSC) Code, the U.S. Standard IndustrialClassification (SIC) system or the like.

A “Service marketplace” includes any tangible or intangible place whereservices are offered for sale or transacted. A tangible place may be alaw office in Falls Church, Va., and an intangible place may be a H. R.Block website.

“Participants of the Service Marketplace” include but are not limited toservice providers providing the above-mentioned services, purchasersintending to purchase services, and facilitators facilitatingtransactions of services. The facilitation of service transaction, suchas customer data mining or customized marketing, also constitutes onetype of service to be transacted in the service marketplace.Facilitators include any third parties which are not directly involvedin service transactions. For example, the Retaining Engine of thepresent invention functions as a facilitator to a service provided by acontractor to a buyer as well as to a service provider when hosting aservice provider's website. In other words, the designation of rolesdepends on each service transaction rather than a fixed label to aparticipant.

“Requests for offers” (“RFOs”) include general solicitation for offersto buy services which are proposed by interested buyers and which do notaddress as a particular blank offer to sell, as well as generalsolicitation for offers to sell which are proposed by service providersand do not correspond to any particular offers to buy. Such solicitationis merely an invitation for offers, which has no binding effect. Tosimplify the discussion, the phrase generally refers to Requests foroffers to sell in the application.

“Blank offers” include general offers to sell which are proposed byservices providers and do not respond to any particular offers to buy,as well as general offers to buy which are proposed by purchasers and donot respond to any particular offers to sell. Offers become binding oncethey are accepted by the offerees. To simplify the discussion, thephrase generally refers to Blank offers to sell in the application.

“Responsive offers” includes acceptances or counter offers which areproposed by services providers responsive to respective offers to buy,as well as acceptances or counter offers which are proposed bypurchasers in response to respective offers to sell. Responsive offersbecome binding once they are accepted by the original offerers. Tosimplify the discussion, the phrase generally refers to responsiveoffers to sell in the application.

“Transactions of services” includes exchanges for services with anyforms of consideration, and exchanges services for services.

“Considerations” include any benefit to promisee or a third person, orany detriment sustained by a promiser. Considerations may be in a formof money, goods, real estate, intellectual property (via assignment orlicense), services, or even love and affection.

“Description of Services”: each project should be dissected intocomponents of services according to the above-mentioned serviceclassification codes. Each component of service may be further dissectedinto more detailed indexes to increases comparison efficiency andbilling accuracy. For example, Incoterms@ are most commonly used inshipping service definitions promulgated by the International Chamber ofCommerce, such as Free On Board (FOB).

Each “service package” contains two or more complementary or co-brandingservices; for example, bundling 40 hours of transcriptionsecretarial/paralegal services with billing services.

“Material terms” of a service transaction are a set of standardizedfeatures, requirements, symbols and terminology regarding technical andquality characteristics of services. The material terms include, but arenot limited to, price (covering cost, margin of preference,reimbursement for transportation, lodging, insurance, use of equipment,duties or taxes in one currency or currencies); terms of payment and ofguarantees in respect of the services; completion timeframe; servicequality; locations of performance and delivery of services; functionalcharacteristics of services; deadline(s) for response to a purchaserequest; availability of service packages; past performance, traderecords, consumer reviews; requirements concerning testing and testmethods, packaging, marking or labeling or conformity certification andsymbols and terminology; extent of participation by local serviceproviders or labor; transfer of technology, the development ofmanagerial, scientific and operational skills; negotiations with thebuyer or other service providers; counter trade arrangements offered byproviders; criteria to be used in determining the winning offers,including qualifications, experience, reputation, reliability andprofessional and managerial competence, and the relative weight of eachcriteria; alternative methods for evaluating and comparing offers; meansfor service providers to seek clarifications of the request for offers,references to the laws and regulations directly pertinent to thepurchase; any formalities that will be required once an offer has beenaccepted; after-delivery customer services; service provider's right toreview other offers, and combinations thereof.

“Provider's right to review other offers”: any service providers thatclaim to have suffered, or that may suffer, loss or injury due to abreach of a duty imposed on a purchaser by law, such as discrimination,may seek to review the winning offer.

“Gap-fillers” for unspecified material terms include default termsadopted by the present invention, or acknowledged by service tradeassociations or the service industry, or default terms agreed upon by aservice provider and a purchaser according to their course of dealings.

“On-line”: on the internet

“Off-line”: off the internet, i.e. the physical world rather than thecyberworld, which includes any close communication communities, such asthe VISA payment network.

A “Retaining session” is a set period of time for (1) a participant tocollect responsive offers; or (2) the retaining engine to accumulate acollective offer or a collective request for offers (i.e. an“accumulating session”). A “Double session” is an accumulating sessionfor a collective RFO/offer to start at the same time with a retainingsession for offers/RFOs. Auctions are a special species of retainingsessions, which focus on price rather than all material terms.

“Off-Retaining session” means a buyer searching for blank offers withoutpublishing any request for offers. In case of emergency, a buyer canaccept blank offers assuming that the respective service providers settheir blank offers to be binding upon acceptance.

“Collective offers /requests for offers” consist of incrementalretaining amounts for service(s) accumulated during an accumulatingsession offered by a group of SPs or a group of buyers which areinterested in selling or buying the involved services.

The present invention provides the infrastructure of a servicemarketplace which allows services to be freely traded as goods, stocksor commodities (primary goods such as agricultural or mining).

Legal Infrastructure: Services Classification & Material Terms

The conventional seller-driven service transaction systems are notprevalent because buyers do not want to be inundated with numerous blankoffers from service providers, many of which may be marginal orunqualified. On the other hand, the conventional buyer-driven systems,such as governmental purchasing or bidding systems, impose inherentcosts on service providers just to collect and review each buyer'sdifferent sets of purchasing specifications which are in non-uniformcommercial or technological terms. In the present invention, the problemis eliminated by the automatic retaining system which adopts a commonset of terms for all the participants of the service marketplace todescribe the relevant services and contracts, i.e. in terms ofstandardized services classification and material terms.

If a buyer wants to contract out a project of building a new hospital,the buyer needs to first classify the project into pieces of servicesaccording to the classification of services, and then describe theimplementation of each piece of service in the material terms. Forexample, to build a new hospital, a buyer will need commercial Realtorservices for finding the potential locations, architectural services fordesigning the physical structure of the hospital, loan brokerageservices for negotiating and securing a loan to finance the project,construction services for building the hospital, and legal services fornegotiating and preparing all the relevant contracts among the partiesin the material terms. The construction services may be sub-classifiedinto plumbing, mechanical, electrical, etc. Then each component of thesub-classified service is described in the material terms.

The service marketplace is organized around all services availableworldwide. According to one embodiment of the present invention, theservices are broken down into classes and subclasses then associatedwith service providers. In one embodiment of the present invention, theservices are classified according to the Universal Standard Products andServices Classification (UNSPSC) Code at http://eccma.org/unspsc/. Forexample, class 621 “Ambulatory Health Care Services” is divided to thefollowing subclasses:

-   -   621 Ambulatory Health Care Services    -   6211 Offices of Physicians    -   62111 Offices of Physicians    -   621111 Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists)    -   621112 Offices of Physicians, Mental Health Specialists    -   6212 Offices of Dentists    -   62121 Offices of Dentists    -   6213 Offices of Other Health Practitioners    -   62131 Offices of Chiropractors    -   62132 Offices of Optometrists    -   62133 Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians)    -   62134 Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists        and Audiologists    -   62139 Offices of All Other Health Practitioners    -   621391 Offices of Podiatrists    -   621399 Offices of All Other Miscellaneous Health Practitioners

The services are further classified according to the ICD-9 codingincorporated into the Medicare Reimbursement Code which was approved bythe Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). ICD-9 breaks downtreatments into detailed procedures. As an example, treatment of canceris further broken down into chemotherapy. A more recent ICD-10 code isbeing developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) which contain theentire list of official descriptions of diseases and health relatedproblems, i.e., the diagnosis or reason for a patient episode of healthcare. This example of medical service classification may be modeled forother type of services then promoted over the internet so as to developa complete set classification of services which also evolves along withthe social and cultural changes.

Currently, there is no public legal infrastructure customized forservice contracts in place. Most of the public legal infrastructure wasdesigned for contracts for goods. For example, each state in the U.S.has its own version of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) whichfacilitates transactions of goods (rather than services) under a set ofpre-agreed terms and conditions. Internationally, the United NationsCommission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has developed a modellaw supporting electronic commerce of goods (but not services). Theevolving Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) isdesigned only to harmonize the law regarding computer informationtransactions. The only model law relates to services is the UNCITRALModel Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services, which wascreated in the 1980s and is only applicable to governmental entities.

With respect to the efforts of the private sector, Bolero is backed byabout 120 banks and logistics firms so as to set up a global technicalstandard for transmitting commercial documents or contracts around theworld via incompatible computer systems and bureaucrats.

There is a need for a set of rules and norms adopted by the serviceindustry and governments that validates and recognizes service offers orcontracts, whether through electronic means or not. The presentinvention establishes standard services classification, material terms,as well as technical protocols and formats to be used in services offersand requests for offers to promote easily understood and assessedservice transaction opportunities. The laid-out material terms of thepresent invention in a request for offers or an offer saves time andcosts in negotiating terms. Specific circumstances of different servicesshould be developed by the relevant trade or professional associationsaccording to industrial customs, course of dealings, or mutual agreementof parties.

The greater the number and complexity of the material terms, the moredifficult for a service provider to evaluate the profitability of arequest for offers. As such, the number of competing service providersdeclines. To solve this problem, the present invention develops aRetaining Engine working in conjunction with a plurality of AutomatedRetaining Management systems to enable a participant in the servicesmarketplace to efficiently evaluate a plurality of offers or Requestsfor offers to make a decision.

Technical Infrastructure: Retaining Engine/Automatic RetainingManagement System

As a brief overview and referring to FIG. 1, a neutralcomputer-implemented system for negotiating/performing continuousretaining auctions over a computer network, a “Retaining Engine” (RE)100, has been developed to execute the functions of registeringparticipant 110, searching and compiling viable RFOs/offers 120,evaluating and matching RFOs/offers 130, managing transactions 140, datamining 150, integrated business management 160,speech/language/emotion/social intelligence/character/characteristicrecognition 170, business referrals 180, and others 190, so that theparticipants of the service marketplace can freely, almost instantly,transact services or service packages like transacting stocks at theNYSE. Alternatively, these functions can be executed through more thanone component of software or by a cluster of computers. For example, aplurality of individually fully automated retaining management systems(“ARMS”) 200, including accounting, maintenance and operation, installedindependently at a buyer's or SP's computer working in conjunction witha central hub to carry out the RE's functions. The ARMS 200 can beinstalled directly on an SP's server to allow an SP to either managetheir own postings/auctions, co-brand with others, or communicate withthe RE 100.

The RE preferably resides in a central server associated with one ormore ARMS servers. Each ARMS resides in a ARMS server and is associatedwith one or more SPs. Some ARMS servers are remotely located from thecentral RE server but selectively integrated with the central RE serverso as to prevent one SP from accessing, obtaining or altering anyproprietary information of another SP without authorization. Each ARMSserver contains sensitive information, including price flexibility andavailable scheduling, of at least one SP, which, if known to other SPsor purchasers, could dramatically impact the SP's negotiating power.Thus, according to a feature of the present invention, the proprietaryinformation is securely stored by each ARMS server, to prevent one SPfrom accessing, obtaining or altering the proprietary information ofanother SP. In another embodiment, the secured ARMS servers utilizeencryption or biometrics techniques and database access controlmechanisms.

The architecture of the retaining engine is open so that it is flexiblewith any add-on features known by one skilled in the art, such asinserting logos and buttons created by SP's into requested headers,footers, frames, multi-file up loader, animated banners, linkpopularity, keyword pointers, chat rooms, bulletin boards, video andaudio interaction, etc. For example, a “Hire Now” feature allowsemployers to work with the employment SPs or other affiliated SPs andgives the added feature of hiring an individual(s) instantly. Thisfeature also has audio and video resumes and interview features.

The retaining engine is language-independent, and it supportscross-platform applications, such as Windows NT, Java, and Solarisplatforms (XML, COM and CORBA), relational databases, such as but notlimited to Informix, Oracle8 and SQL Server, or any invoicing andbilling modules. The notification mechanisms of the present inventioninclude E-mail, instant messaging, cellular phones, facsimile, businessphone, personal pager, home phone, SMS phone, and any other requestedmethod of contact.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a holographic image of ahuman figure is created to represent the RE 100, namely, a retainingagent 101, which is equipped with artificial intelligence to perform allthe functions of the RE 100. A participant of the service marketplacemay custom design such an image. The image may be assigned with humanexpression and reaction and interacts with a participant in a real-timemanner. The RE 100 supports transmitting of such a holographic imageover a computer network or satellite system on a real-time base. The RE100 further facilitates social interactive intelligence over acomputerized network, holographic downloads, projected holographicimagery over a computer network, i.e., holographic projections,holographic optical networking, holographic fiber optics communications,holo-speed optical routing, interconnect and cross connect holographiccommunications over a computerized network, and communication ofholographic imagery and video over computer networks, including theInternet, whether accessed by personal computers, cellular phones, PDAs,or another access means. The RE 100 further supports holographic spatialinteraction, holographic rapid image generation over a computerizednetwork, auto stereoscopic secular optical viewing of holographicimagery over a computer network, holographic environments over acomputerized network, smart holography and intelligent holography inrelation to holographic imagery over a computer network, and holographicoptical computing over a computerized network.

The RE may collect fees for registration, posting requests foroffers/offers, closing transaction, searching and compiling offers,authentication, arbitration 143, data mining, etc.

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart illustrating one embodiment of the operationof the Retaining Engine 100. The RE 100 first defines a set of serviceclassification and material terms in step 105, registers a plurality ofparticipants of the service marketplace in step 110, then makes thefirst RFO/offer accessible for consideration by the participants in step115. After a retaining session is required by a buyer, the RE 100searches and compiles offers/RFOs meeting certain initial criteria inthe first RFO/offer in step 130. If there is a complete match, atransaction is settled in step 141. If there is no complete match butsome offers/RFOs meet certain initial criteria in the first RFO/offer,the RE 100 either resets the first RFO/offer in step 137, or proceed tostep 135 to evaluate and match offers/RFOs based upon degree ofidenticalness with service classification and material terms in thefirst RFO/offer. If there is a substantial match, a transaction issettled in step 141. If there is no substantial match, the RE 100communicates the results generated by the evaluating and matching stepto the buyer in step 135. If the buyer is interested in one-on-onenegotiating with some service providers, the RE 100 will facilitate thenegotiation in step 136 with the support of data mining conducted instep 150 and the Speech, Language, Social Intelligence, Character &Characteristics Recognition conducted in step 170. The negotiation maylead to settlement in step 141 or reset the first RFO/offer in step 137.After a transaction is settled in step 141, the RE 100 transfers paymentand assists the matched participants to fulfill the transaction in step142. If the matched participants dispute the terms of the settledtransactions, they may elect to arbitrate in step 143.

Registering the Participants 110

To provide a safe and fair service marketplace, any participant isrequired to register with the retaining engine 100 so as to effect atransaction in the service marketplace. Each participant provides theinformation of a name, a user name or I.D., and a financial accountnumber, such as, but not limited to, a credit card, checking account,savings account or escrowed retainer account, an image, video or textualdescription of a service or package of services, and a UniversalResource Locator (URL) indicating a location of the image, video ortextual description of the service or package of services, the locationof server or a computer on the network. The RE 100 then assigns a useridentification to a registrant.

The RE 100 maintains a participant's anonymity if the participant sorequires. For numerous privacy and competitive reasons, customers andSPs often prefer not to have their identities revealed in commercialtransactions. Each registered participant transacts with anidentification number stored and secured in a database.

The RE 100 prevents a third party who does not know the registereduser's ID and password from participating in an invitation-onlytransaction. The RE 100 also prevents a person having no encryption keyfrom conducting wiretapping for data concerning a retaining session orfalsifying the data concerning such a retaining session.

Searching and Compiling Viable Offers 120

The participants of the service marketplace may post blank offers 23 oftheir service(s) or package(s) of services, which may include theirbusiness history or background 24, or request of offers 14 on a webpagewhich is hosted by the RE 100, a ARMS 200, or other servers. Thedescriptions of RFOs 14 and offers 23, 25 are provided in the servicesclassification 131 and material terms 132 commonly used in the servicemarketplace so that the RE 100 searches more effectively via theavailable databases for viable matches than those defined innon-standardized terms and languages. If there are any descriptions ofservices or service packages 26 or offers 23, 25 are not prepared in theterminology of the service marketplace, the RE 100 spots for equivalentterms and clarifies with the posting participants. Posting all offers ina centralized location is preferred in order for the participants tosearch easily.

A buyer may order the RE 100 to search all available databases, on-lineor off-line, for viable blank offers 23 without publishing a request foroffers in the service marketplace. This feature is commonly used bygeneral contractors for outsourcing subcontractors or by SPs forretaining complementary services. For example, a general contractorinstructs the RE 100 to search for qualified subcontractors, the datesthey are available to perform the work (services), and the minimum price(e.g., hourly wage). More commonly, a buyer usually publishes a requestfor offers to receive responsive offers 25. Any SP can browse the postedrequest for offers. If an SP intends to accept any browsed request, theSP submits a responsive offer 25 to the RE 100 during a retainingsession 121 or other similar accepting periods. From the starting timeof the retaining session 121, such as 9 a.m., the buyer may elect tosettle the first exactly matching offers or evaluate all viable offersat the end of the retaining session 121, such as 5 p.m.

Even if a buyer has posted its request for offers, the buyer can stillrequest the RE 100 to search for blank offers 23 in conjunction with aretaining session 121. The RE 100 pre-qualifies offers by searching forviable blank offers 23 and screening responsive offers 25 which meet oneor two necessary terms (“initial terms”) specified in the request foroffers 14. The number of initial terms is preferably limited to one ortwo to ensure the RE 100 will search efficiently during the preliminaryscreening stage. All the material terms will be considered in theevaluating and matching stage 130 discussed in the next section. Thecomplied lists of viable offers is presented in a chosen format by thebuyer in step 135 of FIG. 3. The required formats may include text,table, highlights of key terms, ranking according to price, location, orposting time, graphics or video, etc. For example, a large corporationmay want to integrate open and scalable RE capabilities into itsexisting websites and business models. The information may be aggregatedonto an accessible web page, an e-mail, or a document sent by fax,courier or mail, etc., and collected for data mining in the step 150.

If an emergency occurs where services are needed immediately and thereis no time to negotiate, a buyer can accept blank offers 23 posted bySPs (if the offers are allowed to be binding by acceptance) in order toexpedite the transaction, which is a type of “off-retaining session” 122purchase.

If there is no viable offer, the request of offers 14 shall be reset instep 137 by the RE 100 or the buyer for another retaining session.Alternatively, the RE 100 automatically matches the closest offeraccording to some alternate initial terms, such as quantity range,quantity range, or other range of a material term designated by thebuyer.

The traditional means for submitting requests for offers 14 or offers23, 25 are also acceptable, such as telephone, facsimile, on-lineaccess, e-mail, and in-person contact or through an agent.

Besides a public retaining session, a buyer may hold a private retainingsession and invite only a group of selected service providers byproviding such a list of SPs to the RE 100. The RE 100 will only informthose service providers to participate. The private sessionsignificantly reduces the number of responsive offers 25 so as toexpedite the process. To compile such an invitation list, the purchasermay give some simple conditions for the retaining engine 100 to searchby I.D. number, by title and description, words to exclude, price range,service classification, service location, payment method, feedback,insurance, escrow services, authentication, investigations, disputeresolution, specific listings, etc. Similarly, a participant may set upa boycott list to exclude some other participants with poor traderecords or other negative reputation from submitting offers or browsingthe requests for offers 14.

In another embodiment, the RE 100 stores all offers or the compiledoffers in an offer database 32. A buyer may browse offer database 32 byservices classification or any material terms to identify relevantoffers meeting with their requests for offers. The RE 100 also storesall received requests for offers 14 in a RFO database 31. Any SPs maybrowse the RFO database 31 by services classification or any materialterms to identify relevant requests within their qualification,inventory, operation schedule, etc, as set in their automatic scanningpreferences. In another embodiment, an SP may be required to providequalifications in order to view certain requests for offers if therelevant buyers so require.

Information regarding retaining sessions 121 is accessible from aparticipant's terminals. The display may be customized with unique userinterfaces and supplemental applications. For example, the retainingengine 100 uses a software interface to relate information predicatedupon the geographical area of a browsing participant which theparticipant may be desired, or to relate the participant's preferenceobtained via data mining 150. The purchaser is presented with severaloptions including a “viewpoint” map, which may comprise, for example, anactual visually displayed map of a selected geographical area, or textinformation, which pertains to the resources, associated with theselected geographical area. A geographical database, a local contentdatabase and a yellow pages database are provided to allow the purchaserto obtain information at different levels. The geographical databaseallows the purchaser to browse through different geographic areas whichare ordered hierarchically, while the local content database includesinformation about services available within a given geographic locationand the yellow pages database includes information about specificservices in the geographic location. Thus, the purchaser is providedwith a means whereby information which is associated with particulargeographic locations can be readily accessed. This breakdown feature isan added benefit for rural and small SPs, in addition to areas wheredelivery or pickup is available or requested, such as livestock andgrain, construction materials. The geographic break-down feature isespecially important for services involving labor, unions, professionallicenses, local contain requirements, heavy equipment or materials, orother factors with geographic restrictions, such as any unique taste ofagriculture products. With respect to labor, unions, professionallicenses, or local contain requirements, there are additional local lawsor practices to be satisfied. With respect to heavy equipment ormaterials, the major concern is shipping cost and methods. All therefactors can either be set as a preliminary factor for viable RFOs/offerssearch in the searching and compiling step 120 or as a material terms tobe evaluated in the evaluating and matching step 130.

Matching Offers: Evaluation and Comparison of Proposals/Offers 130

As mentioned, the RE 100 significantly accelerates transaction speed andbrings the viable offers directly to a purchaser regardless ofgeographical location. The RE 100 compares competing offers in real timeand selects an offer by material terms 132. In addition, the RE 100itemizes cost so as to determine the total cost of the request. Such a“total cost functionality” is supported by the integrated managementtool 160 which enables buyers to make purchase decisions based not onlyon price, but also on multiple criteria such as quality, delivery time,etc. The buyers determine a deal via a comparison table generated by theRE 100, or the RE 100 makes the decision on behalf of the buyer.

The viable offers are evaluated and compared to the proposals that havebeen accepted in order to ascertain the successful proposal inaccordance with the procedures and criteria set forth in the Request forproposal. Among all the viable offers, one offer is usually selectedaccording to a set of criteria for determining the winning proposal,including qualifications, experience, reputation, reliability,professional and managerial competence and/or any other material terms132 according to the relative weight of each term. The selected SP isnotified that it has “won” the business at the price quoted and shouldbe prepared to settle the transaction in step 141. If there are noacceptable offers, a retainer is reset in step 137. When no SP isinterested or there is no matching offer, the request for offers will bereset to be less stringent, such as by lowering qualificationrequirement, increasing the maximum price, etc.

The criteria shall, to the extent practicable, be objective andquantifiable, and shall be given a relative weight in the evaluationprocedure or be expressed in monetary terms wherever practicable. Nocriteria shall be used that has not been set forth in the Request forproposal unless the purchaser has stipulated in the Request for proposalregarding additional criteria. For example, the buyer requires that awinning offer shall be the offer with the lowest proposal price, subjectto a margin of preference specified in the request for offers. Thelowest proposal price includes the cost of operating, maintaining andrepairing the services or a subject, such as a hospital. The secondarycriteria would include the time for completing the hospital, thefunctional characteristics of the hospital, the terms of payment andbonds. Some offers will be disqualified even if they passed theviability test since they fail some other legal requirements. Forexample, certain types of SP's are licensed in one state but notanother, such as medical doctors, lawyers, etc.

Preferably, each of the qualified SP(s) is prioritized into a hierarchybased on the criteria in the appropriate order. For example, SPs may beautomatically assigned a priority in the hierarchy based on the price,then chronological order in which their automatic acceptances arereceived by the RE when the price is the same. When the receipt time isthe same, the past performance or geographical proximity of thecompatible offers kicks in.

When the amount of qualified services (maybe accumulated from a numberof offers) are more than requested, the buyer either takes those firstcorners or resets the material terms 132 to be more stringing accordingto the alternative methods for evaluating and comparing listed in theRequest for offer. The third option is to proceed to a post-sessionauction for the qualified SPs to propose new offers. A fourth option isto proceed to a one-on-one negotiation between the buyer withhand-picked SPs from the qualified SPs.

If the buyer allows SPs to conditionally accept the Request of offers,the qualified SPs may submit counteroffers. The counteroffers are againprioritized into a hierarchy based on the predetermined criteria.

The RE 100 prohibits one SP or one buyer to probe for undisclosedprices, price range, or flexibility with certain material terms 132 bysending multiple RFOs or offers containing a progressively increasingprice in order to identify the counterpart's undisclosed material terms132. Since each RFO/offer becomes binding upon the acceptance of anofferee, the buyer will either accept the first matching offer or choosethe best offer collected during a retaining session. In other words, ifa buyer sets up a retaining session, SPs are discouraged from submittingmultiple responsive offers containing a progressively increasing pricesince the offers will be considered all together at the end of thesection. Alternatively, the buyer can directly limit the number ofoffers to be submitted by one SP in the request for offers and the RE100 will execute accordingly by bouncing back any additional offersbeyond the set number limit.

When a retaining session 121 proceeds as an auction, SPs or buyersreceive e-mail notification when they have been outbid. The RE 100automatically updates the all bids. Confirmation and congratulatorynotices will be sent via e-mail to a winner.

Multiple Participants Environment: Collective RFOs or Offers, DoubleSession

The RE 100 supports a multiple-participant environment which not onlyhosts retaining sessions for multiple SPs to compete for a RFO ormultiple buyers to compete for an offer to sell, but also hostsaccumulating sessions 123 to accumulate RFOs or offers with incrementalamounts into one collective RFO or offer. The participants of anaccumulating session 123 may be affiliated via a franchise, association,business or merely a group of individuals/corporations formedexclusively for the purpose of retaining services and or packages ofservices. The participants place incremental retainer amounts (IRAs) inthe area of retaining group 43 by accepting the same material terms 132except for some individualized terms such as volume and schedule.

Before the starting time of an accumulating session 123, one or moreorganizers will prepare and publish a request for retaining members in amatter similar to a request for offers but including additional termsfor binding the member with the collective agreement. The collectiveagreement usually stipulates a target retaining amount to gain buying orselling leverage and a mechanism to distribute a deficiency or surplus.The accumulating session 123 then proceeds similar to a retainingsession. A collective agreement shall specify whether participation inthe retaining session is conducted after effecting a retaining group,whether the retaining group will be resolved if the total amount of theRFOs/offers is less than the target.

At the close of an accumulation session, if the accumulating session 123accumulates a total amount sufficient to cover the target, eachindividual IRA contributed to the total IRA is matched by registereduser identification number to a corresponding retaining group account,and each IRA entered by a buyer or an SP are recorded by the RE 100 aindividual retaining amount and a member I.D. The RE 100 then functionson behalf of the retaining groups to facilitate the transaction, chargeor credit according to the respective IRA amount of an SP of a buyer.

A collective request for offers is handled as a regular request foroffers as discussed above. The RE 100 organizes a retaining session foroffers usually after the collective request has been accumulated. Acollective offer is accumulated as discussed above, which usuallyfinishes accumulating before a retaining session starts so that thecollective offer may compete with other regular offers.

It is possible to start an accumulating session 123 for a collectiveRFO/offer along with a retaining session for offers/RFOs (“doublesession” 124). There are at least two possible outcomes at the end ofthe double session 124. When the amount of the accumulated amount of thecollective RFO/offer is less than the total amount of offers/RFOs, theRE will evaluate the offers according to the criteria set by theretaining group. If the amount of the accumulated amount of thecollective RFO/offer is more than the total amount of offers/RFOs, theRE 100 will execute the distribution as instructed by the retaininggroup or according to the collective agreement. During the doublesession 124, the accumulated retaining amount is updated and publishedreal-time when each IRA is added to the total amount.

If the accumulated offers is lower then the target, the RE willdistribute the offered amount per rata or in an agreed hierarchy.Alternative, the RE 100 organizes another accumulating session 123 withbetter terms to compensate the deficiency or with stringer terms todefuse any surplus.

When the RE runs a double session for all the participants rather than aspecific retaining group, no preference is given to any retaining group(collective requests or offers) and request and offers are treatedequally as in a stock exchange, in which buyers enter competitiverequests and sellers enter competitive offers simultaneously, as opposedto a buyer-driven or seller-driven market, wherein transactions areinitiated and dictated by buyers, or the traditional SP-driven market,wherein transactions are initiated and dictated by SPs.

Managing Transactions 140: Settlement 141 & Fulfillment 142

A key element necessary to achieve a critical mass of the servicemarketplace is the buyers' or SPs' ability to bind the other party to alegal contract under the terms of a responsive offer or a counteroffer.In contrast to a non-binding blank offer, a binding offer is attractiveto potential participants because it sets out each and every materialterm and condition under which the other party will be bound withoutadditional time and cost of negotiating. This key element is embedded inthe RE 100 and within the automatic retaining management system 200(ARMS). The traditional non-binding blank offers or solicitation arestill available for participants who would like to have continuingnegotiations for complex deals or any other circumstances.

Additionally, the RE 100 automatically effectuates performance of theagreement between the parties by guaranteeing payments according to anagreed-upon performance schedule. Before communicating a Request foroffers to potential SPs, the RE 100 automatically authenticates thebuyer's identification number against a registrant database. The RE 100requires the buyer to submit undated financial information, such as acredit card number, to ensure that the customer has sufficient credit topay the estimate or maximum price specified in the request. The RE 100then assigns a unique tracking number to the Request for offers andglobally disseminates the Request to potential SPs.

Besides credit cards, other payment modes include banking accounts,debit cards, electronic cash information, billing, invoicing, barteringor other non-monetary consideration, and combinations thereof

A SP wishing to accept any browsed request will submit a responsiveoffer to the RE 100. The RE 100 time-stamps the received offers andverifies whether the Request is still “active” and capable of beingautomatically accepted. If so, the RE 100 then automaticallyauthenticates the identity of the SP and its capacity to deliver theservice(s) and or package of services. If a Request is capable of beingautomatically accepted only by one SP, it is automatically “completed”when the first qualified SP automatically accepts it. A unique automatictracking number is assigned to a “completed” Request. The customer andSP are now parties to a legally binding automatic contract. SubsequentSPs will not be able to automatically accept a “completed” Request.

The RE 100 accepts various automatic payment methods, including but notlimited to credit cards, personal checks, electronic funds transfer,debit cards, retainer escrow accounts, digital cash or bonds. If thebuyer defaults in the contract period, the RE 100 will collect thepayment from a escrow account, which is associated with the customerwherein funds automatically advanced by the buyer is kept by an escrowagent, or a third party bonding agencies which have verified andendorsed the SP's ability to deliver the contracted services, or anyother means.

To assist SPs to deliver the services, the RE 100 offers information onfinancing, outsourcing, import/export law and procedures etc., providesinteraction with colleagues and industry experts, or direct serviceswith any task, projects or service(s). The RE 100 may be appointed bythe parties to administer transactions and any relevant disputes.Alternatively, the RE may refer the dispute to a third-party arbitratorto resolve contract disputes and thereby increase buyer and SPconfidence in the system.

Data Mining 150

As mentioned above, the conventional seller-driven service transactionalsystem is not prevalent because buyers do not want to be bombarded withnumerous offers from service providers, many of who may be marginal orunqualified. The retaining engine 100 supports a novel seller-drivenservice transactional system with a data mining feature to assist abuyer to screen SPs. Meanwhile, the RE 100 also uses data mining toassist SPs to approach targeted buyers in the competitive e-commerce.The use of demographic analysis to market featured goods that fit eachparticipant's profile of interests and transactional records collectedon-line or off-line are popular in the market for goods but not in theservice marketplace. FIG. 6 contrasts the data sources for data miningof the present invention with prior art. In particular, one embodimentof the present invention further includes the data of the socialintelligence, character and characteristics as well as the servicetransaction records in material terms.

E-commerce enabling consumers and businesses to search for all availableoffers boosts the competition across industries and market sectorsworldwide, and customers are becoming more demanding and less loyal intheir uncompromising search for that “just right” combination ofservice, and/or package of services and retainer/price to meet theirindividual needs and geographical location. As a result, companies areracing to discover what customers really want and to incorporate thatvalue perspective into their overall market strategies and in everyaspect of the way they do business. The need to understand customerbehaviors and their impact on profitability over time is required toimprove decision making to meet customer demands and create profit whileeffectively managing risk.

Data mining, or knowledge discovery, often via computer-assistedprocess, uncovers hidden patterns and relationships in data. Meaningfulinformation or transactional attributes, such as consumption profiles,habits and preferences, is extracted from enormous databases throughadvanced statistical analysis and modeling techniques. Data mining hasemerged as a key technology for companies that want to improve thequality of their decision making and gain competitive advantage byexploiting the data available to them.

In an interactive knowledge discovery environment supported by the RE100, the background knowledge of a participant is combined with theunderlying algorithms so as to derive transactional patterns or relevantinformation. As such, targeted content embedded in qualified offers willbe supplied to focused audiences and lead to efficient and effectiveservice transactions. Based on the service or package of services thatthe clients have already retained, data mining will find out what otheroffers of services that the clients would also interest the clients. Inother words, data mining finds out the best ways to target potentialcustomers. In one embodiment of the present invention, the RE 100selects a linear algorithm, such as a simple machine learning algorithm,or a non-linear algorithm, such as a neural network model, or any hybridcombination, to generate noticeable patterns from millions of recordsand hundred of attributes.

Major data mining methods include predictive modeling (e.g., decisiontrees, neural networks, naive bayesian, branching criteria), databasesegmentation (e.g., clustering, K-means), link analysis (e.g., Ruleassociation), text mining (e.g., Semantic maps), and deviation detection(e.g., visualization). Many off-the-shelf data mining algorithm tools,such as Basic data mining algorithm tools are Oracle® Express Serve,Microsoft® Decision Trees, Microsoft® Clustering, and are available tobe used in conjunction with extensive researches conducted on userexperiences and product functionality via e-commerce. Much off-the-shelfsoftware, such as XpertRule® Miner (www.attar.com/tutor/miner.hLm),Oracle® Discoverer, Oracle® Reports, is available. These products,however, only address business decision-making needs at a freezing timepoint rather than a long-term period of time offered by the RE 100 orthe ARMS 200.

For example, the ARMS 200 aims to determine which marketing effortshould be adjusted, and to what degree, for optimal impact by measuringeach customer sector's value in a forward-looking, consistent, andintegrated manner, factoring in the interactions among marketingdecisions across the customer portfolio and throughout the customer lifecycle. The above-mentioned software is applied in a proactive ratherthan responsive manner. The ARMS 200 is not taking the stance of, “If Idon't do x, then y will happen.” Instead, it's “My goal is for y tohappen in the future, what do I do now to make it happen?” In otherwords, the present invention is not seeking to make the best profit fromthe market at certain points of time but rather is seeking to make thebest accumulated profit/value from the aggregated customers over thelife time cycle, i.e. the lifetime consumption value for service(“LCVS”) of a customer sector or an account. LCVS will be discussed indetail in next section. As shown in FIG. 4, the Lifetime ConsumptionValue for Services of the present invention intends to maximize theprofit over a life time cycle rather than a specific time point as theprior art.

Precise, robust decision is the result of a framework that leveragesmultiple data sources and integrates statistics, neural networks andoptimization technology. For example, the RE 100 converts customers'hits to leverage data for designing new services in conjunction withbudgets, price models, etc. Such an approach not only considers pasthistorical services that have been retained by the clients andtransactions but also predicts future services and transactions brokendown into specific markets and/or services or packages of services foroptimizing customer(s)/client(s).

Since the transactional information collected by the RE 100 is welldefined by the services classification and material terms of the presentinvention, the RE 100 or the ARMS 200 can analyze and summarize moreeffectively for interested consumers attributes or patterns of theservice marketplace.

The ARMS 200 uses the robust optimization technique to look at differentscenarios for cost and benefits of marketing services so as to optimizeprofits with the best solution, which goes beyond standard simulationapplication. The ARMS 200 models short-term events in detail, but, pasta certain point, i.e., after an estimate of time, it just does a coarsergrain forecasting. A SP may enter data about a newly-integratedconstruction approach, then the ARMS 200 cross-references thedata-mining statistics and reports of the RE 100, then processes throughits logic to simulate the best marketing approach. It could let the SPknow how to adjust the new services to local needs according to localtaste, weather patterns, local zoning regulation, and marketing.

Moreover, the RE 100 or ARMS 200 visualizes the new data into graphicsor accumulates the new data into market reports. The data-mining featureof the RE 100 or ARMS 200 dramatically redesigns and improves marketingmethods and delivers efficient and measurable marketing information.When used in conjunction with extensive demographic, socio-economic andlifestyle information, the RE 100 or ARMS 200 provides superiorpredictive models and brings actionable marketing information directlyto the desktops of decision-makers. This information guides marketingexecutives to stronger, more client/customer-specific marketingdecisions. For example, the RE 100 or ARMS 200 provides prospectivebuyers the preview of livestock and grain availability at differentlocations and available shipping method and routes for the respectivelocations on one chart.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 utilizes a neural network-based data miningtechnology to enable users to create sophisticated predictive models ofcomplex market forces and customer behavior, build models that not onlyreflect past historical services or packages of services and events andtransactions, but also predict future services or packages of servicesand transactions. This allows for optimizing customer/client managementstrategies, including service, cross-selling and retaining, and costcontrol, and for proactively managing the relationship with thecustomer/client.

The data mining feature enables large and small SPs alike theopportunity to know more about a service marketplace participant,whether a customer or a competitor, so as to make informed decisionsregarding what marketing efforts to expend on who, what, when and how topresent an offer for services or packages of services. By knowingindividuals' or companies' sensitivity to certain types of appeals,these service providers tailor their offers and services or package(s)of services specifically to an individual or company. The outputs ofdata mining tools are used to accurately predict individuals' orcompanies' likelihood of responding to a particular type of service(s)or package(s) of services offer so as to segment customer/client bases,run simulated marketing campaigns, and predict results before going intothe field. The critical piece of the puzzle for marketers of all serviceproviders, whether direct or virtual, understands which marketing mixwill yield the best possible results in the customer universe.

The products of data mining 150 provides the information base formarketing to analyze and refine strategies for direct marketingcampaigns, such as personalized weekly HTML services for auction e-mailnewsletters to registered bidders (which will include particularlyattractive opportunities for services), specific service managementstrategies, which match consumers buying habits to geographic anddemographic profiles, program offerings (i.e., polls, chats, games) toincrease levels of regular participation, personalizing a webpagepresentation around a professional service theme (wallpaper and customcursors and screen savers), offers of customized services to meetspecific needs. The data-mining feature also helps SPs track services orpackages of services performance and customer satisfaction, measureadvertising effectiveness, assess brand strength and competitiveposition, determine price sensitivity, and evaluate new services andpackages of services, markets or other business opportunities.

The RE 100 systematically integrates data mining, prediction andforecasting capabilities with simulation and optimization technologiesto enable SPs to proactively and precisely recommend services and/orpackages of services, making decisions and maximizing financial returnswith much more certainty and confidence. As a truly robust optimizationinstrument, the RE 100 empowers companies to determine the comprehensivecause and effect behaviors of each possible action combination to eachindividual customer/client. The RE 100 fully captures and measures thecausal relationships and sensitivities between key decision variablesand subsequent customer behaviors. Decision variables are those actionsthat management can proactively control and change. Experimental designexpertise facilitates the collection of a rich and complete mapping oftested actions to find their impact on customer behavior over varyingaccount profiles.

Furthermore, the RE 100 uncovers the complex patterns (between decisionvariables and customer behaviors) by leveraging the neural networktechnologies. World class testing methodologies, behavioral dataobservation and collection, and predictive model development form thestrong foundation of advanced optimization solution.

This comprehensive view enables all SPs, especially those engaged inmarketing and extending credit to their customers/clients, to makeaccurate decisions about each individual customer sector's value,closing the loop between data analysis and corporate strategic goals. Bytaking data mining to the long-term level, the RE method and systemcross-cultural functionality leverages an SP's current analyticalprocess into a robust, multidimensional picture of a customer sector'svalue over time. For example, the RE 100 converts hits into preferencedata to be stored in a data warehouse and to perform visitor analysisand enterprise reporting. Through the use of different trackingmechanisms (cookies, log analysis tools, etc.) data can be gleaned andfactors that lead to purchases or other causal relationships can beidentified. These results will then be cross referenced with those thatwere similar, but contained differences (did not purchase or recommend).Data gained from this process will allow the system administrator toview what behaviors and variables are more likely to lead to salesgenerations, etc.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the RE 100 usesindependently developed data mining software. In another embodiment ofthe present invention, the RE 100 incorporates the above-mentionedcommercial software to process internet log files and outputs reports onany number of topics and demographic information with a long-termperspective, which also works in conjunction with the data mining anddata warehousing. SPs can extend their e-business analysis throughcampaign, content, commerce, and affiliate modules that provide powerfulanalysis.

With such a data-mining capability, the RE 100 can capture and measurethe causal relationships and interaction effects of all customer/clientbehaviors in a complete and structured manner. The result is a fullyintegrated decision-making environment that provides SPs with detailedcustomer-sector level, or even account-level, action plans to structuretheir services or packages of services. While incorporating real-worldbusiness constraints and policy parameters, the RE 100 providesrecommendations for producing maximum economic returns to eachcustomer-sector or account.

The data-mining feature allows the ARMS to predict which client islikely to default on payment or switch to a competitor. Furthermore, thedata mining feature is incorporated into the Integrated Management Toolto be discussed in next section so as to apply powerful predictivemodeling, segmentation, and forecasting algorithms to the servicemarketplace beyond marketing or client management. For example,predictive models are helpful to solve marketing issues. But, once it isdetermined WHO is likely to buy and WHAT is the best marketing approach,the question of WHAT TO DO remains—whether to. provide in-house orthrough outsourcing, and the pact on profit. The Integrated ManagementTool will suggest the best, the optimal, proactive action to take witheach customer sector to ensure you obtain the most profit over theirlifetime.

The portfolio of customers is the most important asset of a business.Traditionally, predictive modeling and analysis have provided supportfor the decision as to what action to take. But the final decision ofWHAT TO DO has frequently been made on gut feel alone. Models canpredict WHO is likely to exhibit a particular behavior, such as responseor attrition, but cannot proactively prescribe what to do to meet anSP's or organization's goals given this information. The RE'soptimization environment simulates the future under varying scenariosand conditions giving the decision-maker fill control to stress test andoptimize strategic decisions before they are made.

In addition, the RE 100 provides a wide spectrum of data products, dataintegration services, mailing list services, as well as data warehousingand decision support services to SPs. For example, the RE 100 collectsfeedback about the quality of services based on the value oftransactions, price, and participants' evaluations.

Integrated Management Tool 160

Fortune 1000 companies continue to turn to outside assistance forcreative cost-and-time-management tools. Many companies are usingadvanced statistics to calculate the expected profitability of eachaccount. When an event causes a particular customer's profitabilityprediction to drop below an acceptable level, a certain action isdesignated to occur. This is the problem. The “acceptable level” is setby the organization and the action to take when the prediction dropsbelow this level is stipulated by the organization. No science ishelping determine at what point something should be done and, moreimportantly, what should be done.

The present invention expends data-mining beyond customer relationshipmanagement into a fully integrated business management, includingaccounting, maintenance, operation, scheduling, etc. The comprehensiveoptimization metric of the present invention allows a participant toproactively reach and surpass the SP and or organization's profitabilitygoals by providing scientific advice on what to do. As mentioned, the RE100 or ARMS 200 is not taking the responsive stance of, “If I don't dox, then y will happen.” but rather a proactive one, “My goal is for y tohappen in the future, what do I do now to make it happen?”

In addition, the lack of common success target within a organization hascaused organizational divisions to clash over strategic decisions. TheRE 100 or ARMS 200 enables managers in different areas of functionalresponsibility to make decisions consistent with overall long-termcompany success by utilizing a lifetime value metric (LCVS). Thiselevates their decision-making from a tactical to a strategic focus.While most profit-based scores or models are artificially truncated toreflect short-term measures, such as NOI, it capitalizes on forecastmodels that allow its optimization algorithms to develop a morecomprehensive, LCVS decision metric. It breaks down LCVS into a seriesof properly discounted incoming and outgoing cash flows. Individualcosts and revenues are aggregated into the most accurate representationof account value available today. It optimizes the overall strategicgoals of the company, maximizing economic value over the long-term.

Moreover, the conventional scheduling systems with tools to anticipateexcess capacity make forecasting errors and invariably lead tounanticipated slow times or excess capacity in workers. And conventionalscheduling systems do not support forecasting slow times in a given timeperiod and or geographical locations associated with labors to beavailable to provide service. Furthermore, unexpected external events,such as a price war or extreme weather conditions, can also affect anSPs scheduling and available service(s) and or packages of services. Onthe other hand, uncertainty is incorporated in a range of values toframe a decision with respect to the risk in the present invention. Auser may include a range of scenarios, such as the predicted best andworst case scenarios, based on the participant's expertise.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 simulates the marketplace based upon the resultsof the data-mining and operational constraints of a participant so as todetermine an integrated business plan from a long term perspective,wherein the operational constraints includes asset, cash, capital,inventory, labor, staff, debt, liability, intellectual property,customer preference, competitors' actions and plans, and suppliers'actions and plans. The data mining feature elicits the best ways totarget new customers, the Integrated Management Tool comes up with theintegrated profit-optimizing operation plan to reach the new customersand serve all customers. The RE 100 or ARMS 200 boasts rich modelingcapabilities, which combine advanced analeptics, mathematicalprogramming techniques, applied probability, simulation and neuralnetwork technologies to model complex business situations and computeoptimal decisions. Mathematical programming, a branch of operationsresearch, is used to determine what actions or what combination ofactions will lead to a desired outcome. With an open architecture, theRE 100 or ARMS 200 leverages existing investments in data, analyticalmodels, data warehousing and mining tools, and custom segmentationschemes.

In particular, the integral management feature supports a strategicoptimization, looking at long-term behavior, not just how to optimizethe next promotion, but how to optimize a long-term series of decisions,services and or packages of services for each customer/client.Traditional optimization did not involve predictive modeling. Instead,it relied on linear programming techniques. Typically, analysts knew thevalues of all variables and it was just a matter of finding the mostefficient way to allocate resources for outsourcing. The integralmanagement feature has a modeling component that provides a forecastingcapability to its optimization and simulation tools.

Such an integral management feature of the RE 100 can be remotelyaccessed by a buyer or SP, or installed independently at the SP'scomputer and or with the automatic retaining management system (“ARMS”)200. In other words, ARMS is a system working exclusively for an SP or abuyer, which can be installed independently from the RE but working inconjunction with the RE. As such, the RE works as a neutral third partyto any transaction without concerns of conflict of interest.Technologically, a ARMS can reside in the server which supports the RE.

Optimization has moved from a purely academic exercise to one that isapplied effectively in the commercial world. However, the more complexthe problem, the more flexible the solution must be. Only byincorporating the five processes discussed above, can decision-makersconfidently reach the most reasoned, and reliable solutions. The RE 100or ARMS 200 permits SPs to incorporate real-world business constraintsand policy parameters and goals, enabling organizations to proactivelyand precisely make optimal strategic decisions and to maximize financialreturns with certainty and confidence.

Before optimization can be conducted, the representations of theinteractive environment, or models, have to be built. Predictivemodeling uses raw data or data resulting from data mining to describethe process of mathematically or mentally representing a phenomenon oroccurrence with a series of equations or relationships. These models arecomposed of inputs, such as age, income, and transactional history, andoutputs, such as profitability, life-time value, or chum. There are manytypes of artificial intelligence and statistical techniques that can beused to engage in predictive modeling or data mining. For example, thereare several methods including, but not limited to neural networks,decision trees, CHAID, CART, fuzzy logic, chaos theory, and other moretraditional statistical methods, such as linear regression. The RE 100or ARMS 200 decides which types of predictive models to utilize invarying situations.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 enables and facilitates a buyer or SP tosystematically applies judgment to the entire decision-making processregarding what services to offer at what costs at when and to whom. TheRE 100 or ARMS 200 determines cause and effect from multi-source data tofacilitate the decision-making process. In the value chain that spansfrom raw data to actionable information, towards analytical solutions.These solutions produce the greatest returns and routinely turngigabytes of data into meaningful decision points and marketing plans toprovide service(s) and/or packages of services. After determining thetimewise price elasticity of one's portfolio of customers and potentialcompetition, the RE 100 or ARMS 200 simulates the clients' response to anew service package during an aggregated life cycle of the clients todecide the best launching time and shelf life of the service package soas to obtain the optimized profit for the service package. The RE 100 orARMS 200 further performs cross-service simulation to see the impact ofthe new service package on other existing services or service packagesso as to modify the best launching time and shelf life of the servicepackage thereby obtaining the optimized profit for all services andservice packages over the aggregated life cycle of the clients.

The optimizing technology simulates “what-if” and goal-seekingoptimization scenarios, which help decision-makers understand theconsequences of various business strategies and the possibilities ofoutsourcing or completing the services or packages of services locallyor in specific geographical locations or “in-house”. The integralmanagement feature enables SPs not only to gain much greater insightinto the relationships within their databases, but also to gain theseresults in a fraction of the time or in three to six days which hastraditionally taken six weeks to six months to generate. The predictiveoptimization solutions enable clients and service providers to achievethe maximum value from each individual customer and/or service provideror combination of service providers. The RE 100 or ARMS 200 predicts,tests, tracks, and optimizes strategic and tactical goals based on acomplete and integrated view of revenue, risk and costs. The RE 100 orARMS 200 also generates reports overviewing all variables of alltransactions so that a buyer or an SP adjust accordingly. Data will bepulled from multiple areas within the system and integrated into oneeasy-to-read report.

The results are descriptive rather than prescriptive. The RE 100 or ARMS200 predicts the best champion or any interaction effects of changingvariables. The complexity of prescribing multiple decision variablechanges for multiple segments can become impossible in such a system.However, it is a valuable framework for relationship mapping and formingthe basis for subsequent analytic steps of optimization. It alsoidentifies the importance of the various decision variables for amanager to focus. The decision variables are the model parameters orcoefficients to be adjusted to achieve a good fit.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 designs a solution for integrating functions andbuilding value through a comprehensive optimization metric whichincorporates uncertainty. Once a metric has been established and storedin the system, variables that are introduced at a later time can beadded against the set of already pre-existing variables, and rather thantrying to refigure each individual previous variable, they can begrouped and optimized and or simulated.

The integral management feature has the capabilities in prediction,simulation and optimization platform that incorporate real-worldbusiness constraints and policy parameters to provide recommendationsfor maximum economic returns for each customer/client over their entireportfolio. The solution combines the simulation and optimizationtechnologies with its data mining prediction and forecastingcapabilities. With the neural network-based predictive modeling and datamining tool, it is the ultimate retaining engine for outsourcing andretaining services and or packages of services from all serviceproviders. Two types of constraints reflecting the real world,record-level constraints and cross-record constraints, will be providedto the RE 100 or ARMS 200. One may suppose a manager must optimize underpolicies that prevent long-term customers from receiving eitherincreases or decreases in costs per service or package of services.These are local, or record-level, constraints since they apply onecustomer (or record) at a time. There may also be a constraint limitingthe total expected losses due to default in the next year, i.e., across-record constraint since the actions (the values of the decisionvariables) on all accounts (records) must be considered at once in orderto check compliance with this constraint.

Each optimization problem has an objective function—the expression ofthe metric it optimizes. The objective function is customizable to theindividual business. Lifetime Consumption Value of Services (LCVS) isone measure that reflects the complete consumption of specific servicesof the business by a customer, a customer segment or all aggregatedcustomers, considering all economic flows. Existing market research andforecast methods implemented on a weather forecast supercomputer canlogically forecast the consumption of specific services provided by thebusiness in a continuous and dynamic manner. Multiple consumptionattributes (color, price, timing) within the complex mathematicalexpression of LCVS leads to a big optimization metric. Both of theaggregated life consumption and the price elasticity are expressed infunctions of time and client segments with weighting. Clientsegmentation categories clients into different behavioral group withrespect to LCVS. Each client segment is defined by income, balance,risk, preference or a combination of these consumption attributes. Therelevant explanatory and tracking formula are mathematically constructedas a series of component cash flows over time but in present-valuedollars.

SPs gain strategic advantage by fully understanding causalrelationships, integrating cross-departmental goals, defining acompany-wide and comprehensive performance measurement, incorporatingreal-world constraints, and exploring the tradeoffs between variousstrategic decisions. As shown in the following case study, therelationships between decision variables and customer behaviorsinfluence multiple components of LCVS. Therefore, these individualvariables must be broken down and represented to decision-makers in themost intuitive manner possible. A LCVS statement representing LCVS cashflow components to key executives reflecting the impact of theirdecisions on revenues and expenses, near term and over an extended timeperiod.

The formulas can be modified to incorporate weighted combination of thedifferent objectives (where the weights represent their relativeimportance), or by representing some of the objectives as constraints,whenever those objectives must attain known desired values.

A cash flow calculator (CFC) accurately measures all the cash inflowsand outflows demanded by the objective function and constraints. Thecash flow calculator can calculate inflows and outflows from modelpredictions and forecasts of account behavior as well as from other dataavailable to the decision-maker, converting all available data into aseries of detailed and customizable cash flows at time series intervalsspecified by the client (monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually).Cash inflows and outflows also facilitate the calculation of “terminalvalue.” Individual cash flows calculated at the most granular ordetailed level with respect to the different individual components thatcomprise all flows of cash—can be discounted and ultimately form theexpression that is the objective function of the optimization analysis.The cash flow calculator easily and systematically calculates andreports, or combines them into LCVS.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 also executes per-scheduled purchases for aparticipant according to a set of pre-set preferences or criteria. Forexample, one buyer may order the RE 100, an agent, or a vendor, such asan on-line casino, to automatically and systematically purchase thelottery tickets according to pre-set preferences or criteria, such astypes of lotteries, search criteria, pay-offs, numbers and dates etc.Besides executing the purchase/retaining according the buyer'sinstruction, such as the same set of number 10, 4 every week for oneyear or three months in certain city or certain area codes, the RE 100or ARMS 200 of the marketplace or a vendor can also forecasts theprobability of winning according to the historical winning numbers withrespect to each location. Beyond that, the buyer can simulate otherpurchasing scenarios to optimize the chances of winning. In particular,the RE 100 or ARMS 200 targets on the optimized accumulated awards overa period of time rather than one time. Alternatively, the vendorsolicits on-line for a retaining group so as to pool their moneytogether to participate in the lottery in a matter but not limited to asdescribed above.

When the RE 100 or ARMS 200 identify an RFO for an SP, it firstevaluates the RFO to decide whether its inventory and existing resourcescan carry out the RFO or whether it needs to invest additionally tofulfill the RFO. Once it submits a responsive offer to the buyer by adeadline, and is subsequently informed of the buyer's acceptance, theoffer becomes binding, and the RE 100 or ARMS 200 will rearrange theoperational schedule and inventory of the SP accordingly.

The RE 100 or ARMS 200 permits affiliated SPs to dispose of extraservice capability and fill slow times and thereby obtain value fromsuch unwanted services and slow periods. For example, when a service(s)and or package(s) of services is first added to an SP's schedule, theSP's automatic retaining management system attempts to maximize revenuefor the service by establishing a plurality of fees/rates and thenallocating the number of services and fees assigned to each service(s)or packages of services. The automatic retaining management system willthereafter continue to monitor the actual demand within each service(s)or packages of services relative to forecasted demand, and based ongeographical location and the available service(s) and or packages ofservices to dynamically reevaluate the availability of service(s) and orpackages of services allocation and pricing of each service(s) orpackages of services for a given service(s) or packages of services alsoconsidering and specific requirements that may be specified by theuser(s) or the SP(s). In this manner, the SPs attempt to schedule eachservice(s) and or packages of services and keep their schedules as fullas possible without allowing earlier scheduling and retaining ofdiscounted-fees to displace later-booking fall-fee clients.

Case Study: One pharmaceutical company has a strong product promoted bytwo of its sales forces. Although sales met corporate expectations, thecompany's product management team feel there is room for improvement.The management looks for new ways to increase their profitability andROI, outside of the existing promotional activities, such as sampling,dinner meetings, direct mail, and teleconferences. The RE 100 develops apromotional predictive model with the pharmaceutical company'sprescription data and internal promotion and sales activity for the lastsix months. Using the optimization solution, the RE 100 simulates thereal world effect of various promotional plans before assigning one totheir sales team. The promotional response analysis revealed that eachof the six different new services has substantially different effects onphysician prescribing behavior. Surprisingly, only two new services havesignificant positive impacts on prescription behavior for each of the100,000 physicians in the database. The RE 100 further simulates howmuch profitability could be increased if the two new services arelaunched within the company's operational constraints. For example, nophysician could receive more than 500 samples in a six-month period. TheRE 100 adjusts all levels of marketing activity under the company'scontrol until an optimal solution is found. A tailored marketing andpromotional mix is recommended for each physician to maximize profitfrom all the physicians for, as an example, the future 10 years (thepredicted life cycle of the new services). A summary table provides moredetail on the plan chosen for implementation, including sales, totalprofits, profits due to additional investment, and ROI. The RE 100 alsodiscovers that, by simply changing the physician-sampling strategy, thepredicted sales increases by $1.4 million.

After a new service(s) and or package(s) of services is added to thecompany's schedule, the RE 100 continues monitoring the actual salesrelative to forecasted demand, and based on geographical location andthe available service(s) to reevaluate the availability of service(s)allocation and pricing. Accordingly, the company schedules eachservice(s) appropriately to keep the schedules as full as possible, andtries to avoid the cost of last-minute cancellation or discounted feesdue to early scheduling.

Speech, Language, Emotion, Intelligence, Character & CharacteristicsRecognition 170

Speech recognition by voice (acoustic) or by facial expression/facialmuscle movement (visual) has been applied to help the blind inrecognizing the content of the speech. The recognition is improved whencombining the acoustical source with an optical source that containsinformation from the facial region such as gestures, expressions,head-position, eyebrows, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, jaw,neck, and hair. The major models for speech recognition (visual) includeHidden Markov Models, Multi-Layer Perception, etc. which is enabled byanalyzing image sequences. Experts combine the acoustic and visualanalysis since human speech production and facial expression areinherently linked by a synchrony phenomenon, where changes often occursimultaneously with speech and facial movements. For example, an eyeblink movement may occur at the beginning or end of a word, whileoral-cavity movements may cease at the end of a sentence.

The RE 100 not only combines the acoustical source with an visual sourcethat contains information from the facial regions but also processes thedata via data mining 150 so as to analyze the speech 171, emotion 173(anger, surprise), truthfulness, temperament (hostility), andpersonality (shyness) of a participant of the service marketplace.Specifically, the RE 100 data-mines the collected acoustic and visualdata to develop a set of behavior or body language algorithms toidentify the speaker's emotion (psychiatry, psychological) and socialintelligence in conjunction with the content of the speech. The acousticand visual data of a speaker are measured, sensed, then transferred to adatabase to be filtered and translated to patterns via optimizingqueries, on-line lie detecting, graph systems, semi structured data,simulation, query answering algorithms, etc. As such, the RE 100combines, classifies, and analyzes acoustic and visual data to deepenunderstanding of the sample behaviors so as to discover the implicationsto the speaker's cognitive, ethical, educational, legal, and socialintelligence and to collaborate in sharing this knowledge and workingtogether interactively. With such a data mining approach, the RE 100accumulates a person's emotional and social history that can be relatedto and dispense that particular person's social intelligence.

The analysis of social intelligence 174 includes identifying,investigating, and modeling the ways natural and artificial systemsoperate in order to arrive at unifying principles that explain (1) howlearning and intelligent behavior occur in humans, in other naturalsystems, and in artificial systems; (2) the types of learning tasks anddecision making that are best suited; (3) the kinds of information anddecisions each characteristic produces or creates; (4) the impact ofinteractions among alternative interactive learning environments, socialcontexts and experiences. With a comprehensive set of learning andresearch tools, methods and technologies that use biological,behavioral, cognitive, linguistic, social, and educational concepts withinteractive, collaborative, and multi-sensory technologies, the RE 100develops fundamental knowledge concerning the nature of learning andintelligence in natural or artificial systems, and to apply suchknowledge in speech 171, language 172, emotion 173, social intelligence174, character and characteristics 175 recognition.

For analyzing the social intelligence of a participant, the RE 100 useat least one factor for intelligence, i.e., IQ tests, which areconducted through inputs of the user and or through sensors connectedwith equipment including age definition meaning by touch and size offingertips so as to analyze the user of age six by the information theuser enters while surfing the web, such as the accuracy of spelling,words, topics, interests, mathematical inputs, etc., to determine avalued IQ of the user. Intelligence and intelligence testing focuses onthe question of whether it is useful or meaningful to evaluate peopleaccording to a single major dimension of cognitive competence. There isindeed a general mental ability we commonly call “intelligence,” and itis important in the practical affairs of life. Regardless the form orcontent, tests of mental skills invariably point to the existence of aglobal factor that permeates all aspects of cognition. And this factorseems to have considerable influence on a person's practical quality oflife. Intelligence as measured by IQ tests is the single most effectivepredictor known of individual performance at school and on the job. Italso predicts many other aspects of well-being, including a person'schances of divorcing, dropping out of high school, being unemployed orhaving illegitimate children. The RE 100 then determines the on-lineuser social intelligence. The information on social intelligence can beused for promoting dynamic task allocation, interaction, coordination,process and organization representation, collective learning,consistency business management, protocol, and negotiation.

By the same approach as with the emotion recognition 173, the RE 100also tracks a speaker's character and characteristics 175 over time byanalyzing a sequence of images with a sets of characteristic algorithmsthen saves the images into a imagery database.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the sensors are programmedto function automatically under certain emergent circumstance. Forexample, a 50-year-old man has his cell phone in his pocket with abuilt-in sensor. When the man has a heart attack, the cell phone sensesthe pulse change and automatically calls 911 for emergency services. Thesame technique can be applied to babies and the elderly, and hikers andother physical fitness/sports enthusiasts.

The RE 100 solves problems by searching, game playing, logical reasoningin conjunction with the results from speech, language, emotion, socialintelligence, character and characteristics recognition. The analysisresults may be forwarded to a third party, such as an attorney, anexpert or a mediator, for facilitating the negotiation.

In addition, the emotion is recognized real-time base and with meansbeyond the traditional ones. For example, the RE 100 uses sensors tocatch smells, touch, taste, pulse, body temperature, body language,heart beats, etc. of a participant or an object to decide whether theparticipant is lying. These sensors include equipment and/or manydevices such as neuron technology built into the chips, fiber-optic orlasers sensor.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the sensors are remotelycontrolled to conduct tele-medicine, joint lab research projects, etc.For example, one oncologist processes cell classification and taxonomyanalysis by controlling the sensor on a patient. As another example,three scientists working on the same prototype of a special material bysensing the temperature and characteristics of the material.

The recognition information is to be used for collaborative knowledgeconstruction, developing representation and filtering tools, digitallibraries and repositories across disciplines and application domains,translation of representations, building domain-specific,multidisciplinary knowledge networks and co-laboratories. Therecognition information can also be used to determine a customer'slifetime consumption value of services (LCVS) as discussed previously.

The RE 100 applies a similar technique for language recognition 172,reference languages and patterns of good quality are generated from theholographic database over a computerized network or satellite system.Continuous language patterns and reference language patterns areefficiently compressed so users can pick and choose the languagepreferences and or that can be converted to be used in the holographicimagery preferences in the database. The compressed continuous languagepatterns are sequentially and directly matched with the compressedreference language patterns to recognize the language at high speed andwith high precision.

A reference pattern-generating unit generates a reference languagepattern by normalizing sample patterns while taking into considerationtheir non-linear compression/expansion and by calculating an average ofthe sample patterns into the two-dimensional, three-dimensional,six-dimensional, or holographic imagery database system. A continuouslanguage recognition unit recognizes a continuous language at high speedby sequentially matching the continuous language of time sequentialpatterns with reference language patterns while allowing non-linearexpansion and compression in the time domain.

A language translation system is provided in which a language as well asthe facial expression, movement or emotion of a language user isrecognized and converted into a holographic image and with, but notlimited to, a spoken language with emotion and movement and transferredin the form of holographic imagery texts, voices, sign languages ofanother type to a particular partner among a plurality of unknownholographic and/or system users.

FIG. 5 shows the layers of data mined by the Retaining Engine 110compiled from speech recognition to language recognition and otherlayers subsequently according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. The sequence may be altered for specific data mininginquiries incorporation with a particular data mining method or model.

The RE 100 provides descriptions of the characteristics and motionsbetween but not limited to two holographic image frames and databases.These descriptions of characteristics and motions are further analyzedby the RE 100 to recognize the aforementioned characteristics, movement,expression etc. The RE 100 analyzes characteristics and motions betweenbut not limited to two images using but not limited to parameterizedmodels of image characteristics and motions. The RE 100 definessegmented regions so as to track the pan and tilt of facial muscles andchanges of skin tones to decide the curvature of the facial expressionof a speaker. Initially, a first image in a sequence of images issegmented into a region and a plurality of regions. Then it is used torecover characteristics and motion parameters that estimatecharacteristics and motion between the segmented region in the firstimage and a second image in the sequence of images. The second image iswarped or shifted back towards the first image using the estimatedcharacteristics and motion parameters of the model, in order to modelthe characteristics and motions relative to the first image. A firstmodel and a second model with curvature are used to recovercharacteristics and motion parameters that estimate the imagecharacteristics and motion between the segmented characteristics andmotions and within the regions and the second image. The recoveredcharacteristics and motion parameters of the regions represent therelative characteristics and motions of the features between the firstimage and the second image. The region in the second image is trackedusing the recovered characteristics and motion parameters of the region.The regions in the second image are tracked using both the recoveredcharacteristics and motion parameters for the region and thecharacteristics and motion parameters for the regions. The parametersdescribing the characteristics and motion of the features are filteredto derive mid-level predicates that define body gestures occurringbetween the two images. These mid-level predicates are evaluated overtime to determine but not limited to the above-mentioned characteristicsand expression and gestures occurring in the image sequence.

In addition to generate a holographic image 101 representing the RE 100,i.e., a Retaining Agent 101, the RE 100 also generates holographicimages of a buyer or an SP to be displayed to another buyer or SPwhether the RE 100 is conducting a speech, language, emotion, socialintelligence or characteristics recognition of either speaker.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the speaker may use animage different from the speaker's actual appearance so as to disguisethe speaker's actual identity. As such, the RE 100 will create a mirrorimage of the speaker's emotions, social intelligence or characteristics.Whenever the reaction of the holographic image does not match with thespeaker's, the RE 100 will adjust the emotion generation algorithms andbody language algorithms.

Business Service Referral 180

The RE 100 provides referrals regarding services and/or packages ofservices as required by a participant. In association with each SP andsuch services, the service or package of services includes a hypertextual “referral link” that allows a user (“customer”) to link tocolleagues, friends and family the SP's site and/or services or packageof services and retain the service. When a customer selects a referrallink, the customer's computer transmits unique IDs of the selectedservice or package of services and of the SP's site, allowing the SP toidentify the service and the referring user. If the customersubsequently retains the services or package of services from the SP'ssite, the RE 100 automatically credits an account of the referringindividual. In another embodiment of the present invention, when thatindividual's credited account reaches a limit, then that individualqualifies for free services or packages of services from the SP.

Other Functions 190

The charity feature supported by the RE 100 allows SP's to donate freeservices to those in need locally or worldwide. The charity featureallows a charity request for donations to be processed as a request foroffers but with less restrict registration procedure for donors andrecipients than the participant of the service marketplace. Charitiesoften hold fund raising auctions in which they sell valuable items notservices and or packages of services, which have been donated to thecharity. The retaining auction method presented allows services and/orpackages of services to be retained and increases the amount of funds acharity raises in these auctions for two reasons. First, it greatlyincreases the number of participants by allowing easy on-line access tothe retaining auction. Second, it increases the retainer by allowingordinary individuals, in addition to wealthy individuals, to contributeto the total retainer, expanding the pool of available funds. In onepossible embodiment, competitive retaining groups are formed, eachretaining group representing a different charitable cause. Each IRA orretainer contributed to a retaining group helps the respective charity,but only the winning group is awarded the service(s) and or package ofservices being auctioned and retained. The winning group then holds alottery to determine which one of the contributing registered users getsto keep or distribute the service(s) and/or package of services.

The RE 100 actively promotes or markets services for any participants,especially those in countries without sufficient internetinfrastructure. The RE 100 may take or share risk as well as commissionsfor such activities based on agreements.

The RE 100 organizes e-mail or notification campaigns for a participant.The registered participants receive advanced notice promoting theupcoming services, such as guest speakers' availability, and theexclusive silent/private auction. Email newsletters are generated tomeet users' specific needs and requests. In addition, the RE 100 alsoauctions the Guest Speakers services for the retaining of the guestspeakers on a certain available date and location, and then schedulesthat guest speaker at the time of retaining. Further more, The Re 100supports employment matching whether it is oriented by an employer, anjob-seeker, or a head-hunter.

The principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of thepresent invention have been described in the foregoing specification.However, the invention which is intended to be protected is not limitedto the particular embodiments disclosed. The embodiments describedherein are illustrative rather than restrictive. Variations and changesmay be made by others, and equivalents employed, without departing fromthe spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, it is expresslyintended that all such variations, changes and equivalents which fallwithin the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in theclaims, be embraced thereby.

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplacebetween multiple buyers and sellers of services, comprising: defining aset of service classification and material terms; registering aplurality of participants of the service marketplace; compiling offersto sell services and requests to buy services provided by saidparticipants, wherein the offers and the requests are described in saidset of service classification and material terms; automaticallyevaluating and matching the offers and the requests, without humanintervention, based upon the degree of identicalness of said set ofservice classification and material terms recited in the offers and therequests; communicating to matched participants of the result generatedby the evaluating and matching step; and the offers being unknown toservice buyers and requests being unknown to service sellers prior tothe communicating step.
 2. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, furthercomprising a step of making the offer and the request accessible forconsideration by the participants.
 3. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, furthercomprising a step of settling a transaction based upon said set ofservice classification and material terms recited in the matched offerand the matched request.
 4. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, furthercomprising a step of arbitrating a dispute regarding said set of serviceclassification and material terms recited in the matched offer and thematched request.
 5. A computer-implemented method for facilitating aservices marketplace according to claim 3, further comprising a step ofassisting the matched participants to fulfill the transaction based uponsaid set of service classification and material terms recited in thematched offer and the matched request.
 6. A computer-implemented methodfor facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, whereinthe searching and compiling step includes organizing at least one ofretaining session, off-retaining session, accumulating session, anddouble session.
 7. A computer-implemented method for facilitating aservices marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step ofdata-mining the offers and the requests to discover at least onetransactional attribute of one, a portion, or all of the participants.8. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplaceaccording to claim 7, further comprising a step of simulating themarketplace based upon the results of the data-mining step andoperational constrains of one of said participants, wherein theoperational constrains includes asset, cash, capital, inventory, labor,staff, debt, liability, intellectual property, customer preference,competitors' actions and plans, suppliers' actions and plans so as todetermine an optimized business action or plan from an integrated andlong term perspective.
 9. A computer-implemented method for facilitatinga services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a stepof recognizing at least one of speech, language, emotion, socialintelligent, character and characteristics of at least one of theparticipants by analyzing acoustic or imagery signals collates with theat least one of the participants.
 10. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, furthercomprising a step of recognizing at least one of speech, language,emotion, social intelligent, character and characteristics of at leastone of the participants by analyzing acoustic or imagery signalscollates with the at least one of the participants in conjunction withthe at least one transactional attribute of one, a portion, or all ofthe participants.
 11. A computer-implemented method for facilitating aservices marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step ofreferring business among the participants based upon the results of theregistration step or the offers and requests.
 12. A computer-implementedmethod for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1,wherein the registering step further including registering at least onecharity and one donor, wherein the offers and requests include at leastone offer to donate services and one request for donating services. 13.A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplaceaccording to claim 1, wherein some of the participants are in locationswithout sufficient internet infrastructure.
 14. A computer-implementedmethod for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1,further comprising providing a retaining agent to execute all steps inthe method, wherein the retaining agent is equipped with artificialintelligence.
 15. A computer-implemented method for facilitating aservices marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step oftaking or sharing risk with at least one of the participants.
 16. Acomputer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplaceaccording to claim 1, further comprising a step of collecting fees orcommission at least one of the participants for executing any one of theother steps in the method.
 17. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, furthercomprising a step of promoting at least one of the offer and the requestof at least one of the participants.
 18. A computer-implemented methodfor facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 3, whereinthe settling step including forwarding payment via a mode selected fromthe group consisting of credit card information, debit card information,electronic cash information, billing, invoicing, bartering or othernon-monetary consideration, and combinations thereof.
 19. Acomputer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplaceaccording to claim 1, further comprising a step of gap-filling anyunspecific material terms in the offers and requests with a set ofdefault terms or gap-fillers.
 20. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, furthercomprising a step of predicting behavior of the participants or marketbased on the result generated by the data-mining step, a set ofpredetermined operational constrains of one participant, and casualrelationships and sensitivities among the factors.